Pat Cody

What do ghosts, quilts, and historical novels have in common? Answer: author Pat Cody, who has written books in all three areas.

After a varied career that required writing skills in every job, I began writing and designing for national crafts magazines. Though my designs covered many craft techniques plus a couple I invented (stripe-tucking and machine quilting in connecting lines to form shapes), I wrote a book for quilters called "Continuous Line Quilting Designs, Especially for Machine Quilters."

Not satisfied with a crafts book, I felt the need to write fiction. I had read all of Jane Austen as a girl, and Georgette Heyer was a favorite author for pleasure reading as an adult. With that influence, I turned my efforts toward writing Regencies and accumulating the historical library to support historical fiction with realities of the period, 1811 to 1820. As I read, I was struck by how much of the language, music and social mores during that time echoed those of the Smoky Mountain foothills of East TN where I was born, reared and educated.

Often Dad was called Squire, and he showed as much concern for the tenants working the family farm as any good country squire or great land owner in one of the period novels I read. The manners I was taught would have done a Jane Austen heroine proud. My parents insisted I earn a teaching certificate as the only proper occupation for a woman, which equates to being a governess or teacher in Regency-set historical novels.

My efforts at historical research included not only extensive reading, but also sewing a Regency gown by candlelight, to see how difficult it was to set stitches by the light of "working candles." Romantic as candlelight is said to be, I much prefer modern conveniences for daily and nightly tasks.

During the time I wrote four novels set in the Regency period, I met Karen Stevens on my first journey to England, a tour of country houses with historian and writer Kristine Hughes as a leader. Karen and I were both "singles" for the tour and we were put in touch with each other beforehand as potential roommates. After talking on the phone, we decided we could bear each other for a couple of weeks, and we've been fast friends for many years and journeys since.

Before the first tour, I had doubts about Karen. She not only emailed me with the history of country houses we would visit, she also told me about ghosts that were said to haunt them. Despite her being a research librarian who sounded quite sensible otherwise, I wondered at her talking about ghosts as unremarkable. I didn't wholly believe in ghosts despite my Appalachian upbringing on stories about boggles and haints, and I certainly didn't want her to bring them back to our shared room.

Before the trip was over, I had seen "extras" on photos we made, smelled scents that had no source, and heard footsteps in empty spaces. While I wasn't totally convinced that these anomalies couldn't be explained, I had no idea what caused them.

Besides Karen, I also made fast friends with author Sue-Ellen Welfonder. As much as I learned on the tour, these friendships with other women authors helped me grow in interest and enthusiasm for our shared work. I recommend having close comrades who also write, to any aspiring authors.

Over the years of travel together, Karen and I visited numerous places reputed to be haunted. We ate with ghosts, walked buildings and gardens with ghosts, and slept with ghosts. Okay, I didn't sleep too well in haunted places the first few times, but eventually I became accustomed to ghostly approaches. One of our overnight videos features the sound of heavy footsteps coming up carpeted stairs to our door and stopping. I'm shown leaning forward in bed where I was reading while Karen already slept, checking the space between floor and door for the shadows of corporeal feet, and seeing none, going back to my reading.

As these joint experiences collected over time, Karen and I talked about writing a book for people who were interested in ghosts and who watched the televised ghost investigations, but might not be free to travel and evaluate places said to be haunted themselves. We wrote about our travels to haunted places in a way that allowed others to share our experiences. The result was our release, "Armchair Ghost Hunting." We share photos that may include paranormal images and that definitely contain extras we can't explain. See if you can. We don't mind if you shiver a bit, but we hope you'll also grin as you learn what goes on in two investigators' minds as we search for spirits.

Most of my life has unfolded in Texas, first in Fort Worth and now in Corpus Christi. My main interests in addition to writing are photography, reading, and rehoming Scotties, who add much love and joy to my days.